Epilogue #3
Dory nodded. “We’ll send Blaze to collect them. We’ll let you know what he finds out.”
“If he’s a perv, he dies,” I said firmly, briefly taken aback at my own vehemence, but you know what? Fuck it. If he’s messed with kids, he dies horribly. That should always be the case. Justice would be served by us, his executioners.
“Anything else?”
“Did you make sure he’s not coming after you both?” Wilma asked, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. Oh. I forgot about that part.
I started chuckling to myself, quite proud of my little subterfuge back at Dennis the dick’s house.
“Uh… I may have led him to believe we’re part of that anti-religion organisation that took responsibility for our other actions.”
Silence fell, and then laughter sounded, first from the other end of the call, and then Ash and I joined in.
Even Wilma looked impressed. They knew about the outcome of that meeting with the police, of course, but I still wasn’t a hundred percent convinced it was legit, and not some weird Cross family trickery going on.
Still, if it put the terror back in that guy’s eyes, and left him living with an eye looking over his shoulder for the rest of his days, I was more than okay with it.
Wilma sobered first, leaning closer to the screen. “Is Ren doing okay? He’s such a sweet boy.”
Yeah, how long before we corrupted him enough that he became anything but? I swallowed those words, because this was not an audience who’d see my point. All I could do was keep trying to keep Ren on the right path, one that kept him safe, and out of jail.
“He’s in his room,” Ash said, jabbing his finger at those phones again. “I feel as creeped out by these as I do when old Sharpie shows up.”
Gray winced, shushing his son. “Don’t let him hear you call him that.”
Okay, weird. Even Gray was afraid of the man he’d apparently known for decades, and trusted with our safety.
Something distracted Ash’s parents then, and Wilma sighed, as both dads hurriedly left their seats and disappeared.
“Everything okay, mum?” Now Ash was worried, his fingers suddenly gripping mine in a tight, biting grasp.
She sighed, her head shifting as she looked away from the phone at whatever was causing the yelling we could now hear.
“I think the boys are arguing again. My god. I don’t know what’s up with them. They’re twins, so shouldn’t they get on better than this?” Whoa. I caught Ash’s gaze and he shrugged, but I could see the worry on his face.
“I hope they’re okay,” I said, as Ash spoke too.
“Mum, call us if you need help with them. We have a nice room we can lock them in.”
She tutted at him as she reached out to pick up the phone.
“It might come to that yet, but damn, I hope not. Speak to you soon, boys. Love you both.”
The call ended a second later, and I sat back in the seat, my jaw slack with shock. Wilma just said she loves us both. Both. That meant she loved me. It left me silent, stunned. She didn’t mean it, right? It’s just something people say.
“Cal?”
I was up and heading for the kitchen, for a beer, a coffee, something. I needed a distraction instead of dwelling on what was probably just a friendly goodbye, rather than a declaration of motherly love.
“What’s going on, babe?” Ash caught up with me, and spun me back against the tall fridge freezer, slamming me against it. “Stop running and talk to me.”
I swallowed hard, surprised to find myself choked up at the prospect of something that may have just been nothing more than a reflex. Love. Did I even deserve their love? Who was I to them? The man who had their son raped. Maybe that’s all I’d ever be to them.
“No. Don’t do that. Whatever’s going on, don’t do it.”
“She… she said love.”
Ash grinned. “I thought you’d learned that my family loves deeply, and accepts each of us as we are.”
“What I did to you…”
His gaze darkened for a moment, and a light shudder ran through him.
“We don’t talk about that. It’s done. She’s dead. We’ve moved on. My family have accepted you, Cal. Get used to it. I mean, hell, they accepted Ethan, didn’t they?”
I sighed, wrapping my hands around Ash’s shoulders, gripping him tightly, like I needed him to ground me.
“I’m…” I let out a slow breath, trying again, “I’m worth loving?”
Ash leaned his forehead against mine, cupping my face as he nodded against me.
“So worth it, babe. You always were.”
I’d doubted it, doubted myself, doubted everything about me that didn’t fit into that box my parents wanted to keep me in.
It was time to push all of that aside, and embrace who I’d become.
No religion, no hate, no denying anything.
Ash was showing me that I was more than I’d been before, that I would always be more, to him.
“Always, Ash?”
He grinned, pressing his lips against mine.
“From now until we tear up hell together, babe, and forever after. Our love is beyond eternal. It’s infinite. It’s us.”
THE END